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April 29, 2008

G28: Red Sox 1, Blue Jays 0

Lester (8-1-0-4-6, 97) was magnificent, and was able to vary his pitches more than usual, mixing in his curve and changeup. The only hit he allowed was a leadoff single in the fifth to Overbay. On the next pitch, Stewart grounded into a double play.

Lester walked four batters, but three of them came with two outs and no one on base. The other one was a leadoff pass to Zaun in the sixth. But again, there was little harm. After Rios was caught looking, Eckstein grounded into a double play.

Even with the walks, he was around the plate all night. In a string of 11 batters -- from Stewart in the second to Lind in the fifth -- Lester threw only 11 balls. He also avoided long at-bats. Only five of his 27 batters saw more than five pitches in an at-bat, and no one saw more than seven.

I would have sent Lester out for the ninth on a short leash, but Tito went with Papelbon. Bot struck out Rios and Stairs before Rolen doubled to left-center. Wells then ripped a shot by Bot's head. It seemed headed for center field, but Pedroia dove to his right, snared the ball on a high hop, spun and fired a strike to first. It was a phenomenal play -- as eye-popping as the one he made to preserve Buchholz's no-hitter -- and it kept the game at 0-0.

For 8.2 innings, the Red Sox did as much with Halladay as the Jays did with Lester. They managed only three singles: Youkilis in the second, Brandon Moss (who took over for Drew when he left in the fourth because of a tight left quad muscle) in the fifth, and Varitek in the eighth.

With two outs in the bottom of the ninth, Ortiz whacked a 2-0 pitch to deeeeep right field, but foul. Was Halladay -- at 106 pitches -- rattled? Perhaps. He threw two more balls to Tiz, walking him. Manny then dropped a 1-0 pitch into center, moving Ortiz to second. Francona could have pinch-run Lowrie for Flo, but with a short bench, he thought he might need Lowrie to fill in for Pedroia -- who had jammed his shoulder making the diving stop on Wells.

Youkilis looked at a ball, then lined a hit to center. Ortiz came chugging around third. Wells bobbled the ball, and there was no throw to the infield. Tiz came across the plate with the winning run, but he was limping.

It's great to see such strong starting pitching and although Boston has scored only two runs in their last 32 innings, the bats will return.

Cafardo, at 5:30:"... the tarp is on the field. There's light rain falling ... There's hope this one gets off on time at 7:05 p.m. ... Jacoby Ellsbury has a sore groin. ... Alex Cora began his throwing program today ..."

This made me think of being at camp as a kid (and on through high school) because every night after evening program there would be announcements and such and one of the councelors always yelled, "Check for TICKS!" in this particular way...

Anyhow, that was a boring story (could have used a vampire) but thanks for the unexpected happy memory!

At least we seem to be taking first pitches in an effort to get the pitch count up. Seems that so far this season there's been a lot more swinging at the first pitch than I recall in recent Sox memory.

First 3 out of the way for Lester. He looks very, very sharp the first time through the order. Let's see how he fares the second time. He's throwing his pitches for strikes. He's staying on the corners, but he's not nibbling. He's going right after them. Very good sign.

But, of course, Halladay is matching Lester pitch for pitch. I actually think Halladay is pitching better than Lester. But either way, we could be in for an old fashioned pitcher's duel. Not going to make the Red Sox offense feel any better.

Sarah--yes, 2 cables. I've complained my whole life about cable companies always having a monopoly in any given town. But now I'm in a town where you can choose between two. And in one room we pick up the one we don't have. That one's free, wink wink.

That was a character pitch right there! The game has slowed down for Lester, having a man on first base. Goes to a full count, and any other start, he'd issue ball four. This time, he pumps a fastball through for strike three.

Fair point Patrick - that's why I don't listen to so many sports people! Most of the folks here at Joy Nation are happy with the pitching situation, that's all I was saying. I'd much rather have killer pitching hampered by slow bats than the other way around, because the bats are going to come back, but mediocre pitching is just mediocre pitching.